S2E24: From pineapple farms to data centres: Johor’s changing landscape

2025-03-13

But Malaysians’ love affair with the fruit persists. Synopsis: Every first Friday of the month, The Straits Times catches up with its foreign correspondents about life and trends in the countries they're based in. Talk about what’s new with Johor nowadays and one usually ends up with a five-letter acronym - JSSEZ, or the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone. But all the excitement about rising opportunities has also hastened the demise of what traditionally has juiced up Johor’s economy - pineapple farms. Land packed with ...

But Malaysians’ love affair with the fruit persists.

Synopsis: Every first Friday of the month, The Straits Times catches up with its foreign correspondents about life and trends in the countries they're based in.

Talk about what’s new with Johor nowadays and one usually ends up with a five-letter acronym - JSSEZ, or the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone.

But all the excitement about rising opportunities has also hastened the demise of what traditionally has juiced up Johor’s economy - pineapple farms. Land packed with the hardy, spiky fruits is making way for more profitable oil palm plantations, data centres as well as other commercial and industrial activities.

Malaysia is not giving up on pineapples though, as it's the No 2 export fruit after the mighty durian. Sarawak has earmarked 20,000 hectares just for growing the fruit.

In this episode, ST’s foreign editor Li Xueying speaks with Malaysia correspondent Lu Wei Hoong about his love affair with pineapples and why it means so much to Malaysians.

Highlights (click/tap above):

0:56 A special fruit to Malaysians

5:00 The closure of Lee’s Pineapple Juice

7:03 The rise of data centres

12:42 From Johor to Singapore: The pineapple connection

Read Lu Wei Hoong’s article here: https://str.sg/zby2

Read Li Xueying’s articles: https://str.sg/iqmR

Follow Li Xueying on LinkedIn: https://str.sg/ip4x

Host: Li Xueying (xueying@sph.com.sg)

Edited by: Fa’izah Sani

Executive producer: Ernest Luis

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